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There is nothing so difficult or so dangerous as to undertake to change the order of things.

Niccolo Machiavelli

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Niccolo Machiavelli
Age: 58 †
Born: 1469
Born: May 3
Died: 1527
Died: June 22
Diplomat
Historian
Military Theorist
Philosopher
Playwright
Poet
Political Theorist
Politician
Translator
Writer
Florence
Tuscany
Nicolo Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli
Niccolò di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
Nicolò Machiavelli
N. Machiavelli
Niccolo di Bernardo dei Machiavelli
Machiavelli
Nothing
Things
Undertake
Dangerous
Difficult
Order
Change

More quotes by Niccolo Machiavelli

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If the present be compared with the remote past, it is easily seen that in all cities and in all peoples there are the same desires and the same passions as there always were.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Among other evils which being unarmed brings you, it causes you to be despised.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Whoever is the cause of another becoming powerful, is ruined himself for that power is produced by him either through craft or force and both of these are suspected by the one who has been raised to power.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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God creates men, but they choose each other.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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A prince must not have any objective nor any thought, nor take up any art, other than the art of war and its ordering and discipline because it is the only art that pertains to him who commands. And it is of such virtue that not only does it maintain those who were born princes, but many times makes men rise to that rank from private station.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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I believe that it is possible for one to praise, without concern, any man after he is dead since every reason and supervision for adulation is lacking.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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So in all human affairs one notices, if one examines them closely, that it is impossible to remove one inconvenience without another emerging.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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One must consider the final result
Niccolo Machiavelli
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He who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Therefore, a prudent ruler ought not to keep faith when by so doing it would be against his interest, and when the reasons which made him bind himself no longer exist. If men were all good, this precept would not be a good one but as they are bad, and would not observe their faith with you, so you are not bound to keep faith with them.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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There is simply no comparison between a man who is armed and one who is not. It is simply unreasonable to expect that an armed man should obey one who is unarmed, or that an unarmed man should remain safe and secure when his servants are armed.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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It is better to be adventurous than cautious, because fortune is a woman.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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And when he is obliged to take the life of any one, to do so when there is a proper justification and manifest reason for it but above all he must abstain from taking the property of others, for men forget more easily the death of their father than the loss of their patrimony.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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But in Republics there is a stronger vitality, a fiercer hatred, a keener thirst for revenge. The memory of their former freedom will not let them rest so that the safest course is either to destroy them, or to go and live in them.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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The more sand has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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The world has always been the same and there is always as much good fortune as bad in it.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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Never was anything great achieved without danger.
Niccolo Machiavelli
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The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love.
Niccolo Machiavelli